Top 3 Reasons Your Firm Should Embrace Twitter in 2012

By Stephanie Rabiner, Esq. on
November 12, 2011 4:57 AM

Despite movement from some of the nation's largest law firms, the legal industry has not yet fully embraced social media. LinkedIn is the big winner, according to a new survey on law firm social media use. Approximately 77% of respondents have firm profiles.

But then there's Twitter. Only 31% of firms surveyed use the microblogging service. This is a shame.

If there's one social network your firm should be a part of it, it's Twitter. Here's why:

Twitter is better than email. At a forum held earlier this year, a group of corporate counsel let it be known that few of them read client alerts. The emails are often long and irrelevant to their practice. Twitter overcomes both of these problems.

A client alert tweet consists only of an intriguing title and a link. Clients don't have to sift through inboxes and long emails to see what's important. You can even create industry or practice-specific Twitter accounts to ensure your alerts get to the right people.

It's good for recruiting. Today's law students get a lot of their information on Twitter. A law firm Twitter can keep those students up to date on firm initiatives and interesting cases.

It would also be interesting to ask a few young associates to tweet so potential summers can see what firm life is like.

Networking made easy. This is especially true for smaller firms, but it works for practices of all sizes. Twitter helps you keep tabs on actual and potential clients so you can assess their needs.

More localized firms can connect with small businesses, local organizations and the greater community.

For these reasons and more, you should make 2012 the year of the law firm Twitter and sign up.